The morphological analysis of vasculature and angiogenic potential in meningiomas: immunoexpression of CD31 and VEGF antibodies.

Meningiomas, despite being the mostly well-differentiated tumours, are quite often characterised by invasive growth and recurrences. As this fact may be caused by proangiogenic factors, we have investigated immunoexpression of CD31 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in these tumours. The materials included 10 atypical meningiomas (G2), and the following subtypes of benign meningiomas (G1): 21 transitional, 17 meningothelial and 13 fibrous. Paraffin sections were immunostained with CD31 (DAKO) and VEGF (Santa Cruz) antibodies. The highest number of blood vessels was revealed in atypical meningiomas and much lower (statistically significant difference) in benign ones. Diffuse or focal expression of VEGF of various intensity was shown both in atypical and benign types of tumours with no statistically significant differences between both groups of tumours and between subtypes of benign meningiomas.